new pc can you find better?

[Geralt]

In my previous job we were using Dell desktop PCs only as well as some notebooks.

We had about 250 PC machines with next business day contract and there were no problem with that. I only had to send fax or e-mail to service company, next day (sometimes same day) a man came with some parts to replace and in 90% of cases everything was working again.

As for laptops - colegue is using Dell a lot. He is traveling around Europe a lot and never had a problem with Dell support. Hell, when he was in Slovakia, dell technician has met him at some gas station to replace faulty keyboard.

But maybe Dell and theirs service partners are much more reliable here, in Czech republic or middle europe, than in UK

But yes, they are pricy.

[Cernos]

Dell are alright if you're the sort of person who never wants to upgrade or tinker with your PC. They're never cutting edge, but usually reasonable performers and reliable in my experience (but maybe they've got worse lately from what people are saying). Where the main problem comes with Dell is if you decide you want to do some upgrades later. They skimp on upgrade potential (things like memory and card slots, drive bays etc) and their cases aren't very standard and can often be a nightmare to work with. Don't go Dell if you want to poke around inside your machine ever and upgrade stuff.

Personally I always build my own machines. It's actually not cheaper than a pre-built system, but you do get exactly what you want (so no generic junk like prebuilt systems tend to contain) and there's a sense of satisfaction from putting it all together. These days all the sockets and leads are uniquely socketed and colour coded, so there's almost no risk of plugging anything into the wrong place when doing a build.

Usually get stuff from http://www.scan.co.uk, http://www.dabs.com, http://www.overclockers.co.uk

[Killder]

Last 2 PC's and current Laptop are Dells and I have no complaints whatsoever - fast reliable delivery service and if like me you want a well specced system that you never want to 'tamper' with they are ideal.

[Flobba Job]

i actually built my own machine yesterday using AutDirect.co.uk (shop near me in essex) i spent about £735 on and that included, 19" TFT Dell Monitor, 3500+ AMD Athlon 64, 2 X 250 Gig Sata Drives, 1 Gig Memory, XBlade Case (black) DVD Writer, speakers, wireless mouse + keyboard combo, and... i think that was it (kept my graphics card tho as i'm cheap) but yeah, other then the Sata Drives being a pain to set up (i know where i went wrong now) it was easy, so far the machine is running very well, and i have actually put so much on it so far its crazy. so yeah, i recommend building your own one.

PS. i remembered i also bought another copy of XP

[Xest]

In my previous job we were using Dell desktop PCs only as well as some notebooks.

We had about 250 PC machines with next business day contract and there were no problem with that. I only had to send fax or e-mail to service company, next day (sometimes same day) a man came with some parts to replace and in 90% of cases everything was working again.

As for laptops - colegue is using Dell a lot. He is traveling around Europe a lot and never had a problem with Dell support. Hell, when he was in Slovakia, dell technician has met him at some gas station to replace faulty keyboard.

But maybe Dell and theirs service partners are much more reliable here, in Czech republic or middle europe, than in UK

But yes, they are pricy.

How long ago was this though? I agree Dell were extremely good around a year to 18months ago, but since then they've plumetted to become the worst company I've dealt with. I'm really not sure what went wrong at Dell, as I say 2 years ago I just wouldn't recommend anyone else for laptops/servers, now I just wouldn't recommend them full stop ]They're never cutting edge, but usually reasonable performers and reliable in my experience (but maybe they've got worse lately from what people are saying).[/QUOTE] Again that's pretty much spot on, as I say a year or so ago I'd have recommended Dell, to me they were the dogs bollocks in terms of laptops/servers (I'd never buy a desktop from a manufacturer, anyway no matter how good, always build from scratch). Nowadays though they've just gone to crap - high failure rates in hardware, incompetence of their repair staff, worthless Indian call centre for home users, overly busy UK call centre for business users, outright and blatant intentional false advertising to try and scam people into buying from them and so on. In fact, on that note, I found this story from yesterday quite amusing: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/13 ... verssells/

The last few servers I've ordered have all been Dell but I really need to start looking into the likes of IBM and HP to see how their offerings compare. As for desktops in a corporate enviroment where cost is less of an issue and we don't have time to spend building every PC I'm a little lost as to which supplier to use however http://www.stonecomputers.co.uk/ is looking quite tempting, they seem to have good offers for bulk buying and the kit I've dealt with seems well made, looks pretty decent and is full of completely standard components meaning that even if they're left floating around out of warranty instead of in the bin they'll still easily be repairable if a part goes. Also from people I've spoke to who use them they often manage same-day visits by their technicians to replace faulty components under warranty, or if you want they'll send the parts and let you replace them yourself.

[Xest]

Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have said anything about Dell this morning, it seems they're stalking me now

We had a new Dell laptop delivered for one of our users this afternoon.... except it wasn't new. The internal packaging had previously been unwrapped, all the protective plastic was removed, finger prints on the screen and the installation had already been booted up and configured. If they're going to try and pass off a returned laptop as new they could've at least restored the OS to factory state. What's more they said they were coming to pick up my old laptop on the 8th (last Thurs) and never turned up, phoned me on Friday asking if the courier had been and I said no and today I got some angry Indian woman phoning me demanding I give her details of the courier slip to prove it was collected, despite me trying to explain the courier never arrived she was unable to get the message and being at work I had little choice to cut her off because she was simply too dumb/too bad at English to understand "The courier never came". Oh well, I guess 7 months to resolve my faulty laptop saga once and for all is too much to expect from Dell, maybe given another 5 months they'll have collected the old faulty one and will have stopped pestering me.

[Ovi]

Xest, please can you stop talking about dell issues :<

"We" have recently decided to stop using our existing 3rd party maintenance company, who we were very happy with, and start using Dell Support purchased with the machines (Desktops and Laptops). On the basis we will save a small amount of money each year.

So far we have only made 2 calls, should have been 4 but our central helpdesk allocated 2 to the old maintenace Company, and both have had "issues".

Not looking forward to the next 3 years until the next review

Fortunately we recently changed from Dell to HP for servers, and the service there so far seems much better, plus I like the hardware more

[Xest]

Yeah we dropped our old 3rd party maintenance company last year, we've just decided now that if a machine is out of warranty (3yrs) it's either too old to care about, or we'll just replace the required parts ourselves, it just doesn't seem cost effective using a 3rd party company for it now.

[Coheed]

i use http://www.ebuyer.co.uk or http://www.overclockers.co.uk

dont know shit about components or the hardware side of PC's....i just buy it and give my mate a few quid to put it together / fix it....

need a new one soon so might start saving

~Coheed

[Sardine]

If i were you i would wait a few months to get a new pc untill the new physics processor comes out. think it's around may time they get released. However saying that, you could just get a pc and upgrade it when its out They direct all the physics work from the graphics card to the physics processor leaving the graphics just to deal with the graphics and therefore making it run alot smoother. No idea how much they will cost, about £200 probably, feel free to tell me otherwise though if i am wrong